Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 34 together.

I am conscious that enforcing penalties for road traffic offences on foreign registered drivers raises many legal, organisational and procedural issues, which make it very difficult for any one State to enforce such penalties. For that reason, my Department is pursuing this question at European, British-Irish and North-South levels where mutual recognition and cross-border enforcement possibilities are under consideration. Work is ongoing.

All drivers are subject to road traffic law and it is a matter for the Garda Síochána to enforce the law. As foreign licence holders do not have an Irish driving licence record, penalty points incurred in this State are recorded against that person on a separate record in the national driver file. Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006 (Conferral of Functions) Order 2006, SI 477 of 2006, the Road Safety Authority has responsibility for ensuring penalty points are endorsed on a licence record. Data on penalty points is held on the national driver file.

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